5 Wisconsin players to watch against Iowa football in 2024

IOWA CITY — Iowa football will be looking to do something this week that it has not done since the early-to-mid 2000s — keep the Heartland Trophy on Evashevski Drive for the third consecutive season.

Iowa brought it to Iowa City in 2022 after a 24-10 win over Wisconsin and kept it here with a 15-6 win last year in Madison. Now, Iowa is a three-point favorite ahead of Saturday’s renewal of the longtime Big Ten rivalry.

Here are five Wisconsin players to watch in the latest of Iowa’s rivalry trophy games this season:

RB Tawee Walker

Oklahoma transfer Tawee Walker grew up playing youth football with New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson, according to his old Oklahoma player bio.

Now, he is putting up Stevenson-esque numbers as the Badgers’ primary running back in 2024. (He previously shared that role with Chez Mellusi, but Mellusi decided to step away from the team earlier this month.)

Walker has 624 rushing yards this season while averaging 5.0 yards per carry. That’s already more rushing yards than he had in his previous two years at Oklahoma combined.

The 5-foot-9 running back’s college career started at Palomar Junior College in southern California, where he rushed for 878 yards and 17 touchdowns on 100 carries.

When Walker rushes for at least 60 yards, the Badgers are 4-0 this season. When he does not reach that mark, they are 1-3.

Cade Yacamelli will be another running back to watch. The third-year running back from Trafford, Pa., has picked up 274 rushing yards in a secondary role while averaging 8.3 yards per carry.

DB Hunter Wohler

Hunter Wohler grew up participating in not only football, but also water skiing in Muskego, Wis. — a lake-heavy suburb of Milwaukee.

“The core strength is definitely a big piece and the stability and leg strength,” Wohler told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this year. “And also just patience, because you can’t fight … water. It doesn’t really work.”

Those qualities have served Wohler well on land, too, as he has been a key part of Wisconsin’s secondary in recent years. He received first-team all-Big Ten recognition last year from the Associated Press and second-team all-Big Ten recognition from the conference’s media panel.

In 2024, Wohler leads the Badgers with six pass breakups and is second on the team with 48 total tackles. He has allowed receptions on only nine of his receivers’ 19 targets, according to Pro Football Focus.

Wohler also has returned five punts for the Badgers this season, averaging 8.2 yards per return.

WR Will Pauling

Will Pauling has been a relative constant for the Badgers in his second year in Madison.

The former Cincinnati transfer’s 38 receptions are a team-high, and his 381 receiving yards are second only to Vinny Anthony II’s 392 receiving yards. He has caught at least four passes in six of the Badgers’ eight games, with Wisconsin’s win over Purdue and loss to USC being the two exceptions.

He exited Wisconsin’s Oct. 12 game against Rutgers with an injury, but that did not stop him from leading the team in receptions and receiving yards a week later against Northwestern.

LB Jake Chaney

Jake Chaney is among the key players on a Wisconsin defense that ranks 22nd nationally in yards allowed per game and 48th in yards allowed per play.

Chaney, in his fourth season with the Badgers, leads with the team with four tackles for loss and is fourth on the team with 34 total tackles. He also has one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry.

He had his first sack of the season last week as he downed Penn State’s Drew Allar late in the second quarter as the Nittany Lions (unsuccessfully) tried putting together a scoring drive before halftime.

QB Braedyn Locke

Braedyn Locke has been thrust into Wisconsin’s first-team quarterback role since Tyler Van Dyke’s season-ending injury against Alabama.

Locke’s time as QB1 in Madison has not always been smooth. He has thrown at least one interception in five of his six games. The Rockwall, Texas, native has completed 57.6 percent of his passes while throwing seven touchdowns versus six interceptions.

His passer rating of 124.7 ranks 93rd among 122 qualifying FBS quarterbacks. The only qualifying Big Ten quarterbacks with lower passer ratings are Rutgers’ Athan Kaliakmanis (119.5), Iowa’s Cade McNamara (115.8) and Northwestern’s Jack Lausch (100.8).

Iowa has some familiarity with Locke, who also stepped in when Tanner Mordecai suffered an injury in last year’s Heartland Trophy game. Locke was 15-of-30 with 122 yards and one interception as the Hawkeyes pulled away with a 15-6 win.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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